The Melancholy of Resistance (New Directions Paperbook) Paperback – June 17, 2002

This is the book that is the basis for Bela Tarr's brilliant film Werckmeister Harmonies. The script for the film was co-written by the author, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, and the book is the equal of the film, and also compliments it. Laszlo and Bela Tarr have a very unique relationship, in that all of Bela's later films were co-written by Laszlo, and some were based on his novels (like the epic Satantango). This book is typed as if it were one epic sentence (with a few breaths here and there), conjuring up language and a scope worthy of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy (2 of my favorite writers). There is an amazing sense of dread and drifting in the cosmos contained in these pages (and in the film as well). In most modern novels, you don't really get that sense of the epic and the scope associated with works like this. Laszlo Krasznahorkai is one of my favorite modern authors, and I hope that more of his work becomes available here.

"The Melancholy of Resistance" is a powerful, haunting novel that leaves the reader with more questions than it does answers.Set in a small, crumbling Hungarian town, the action centers around the arrival of a travelling circus and the intimidatingly giant whale that the circus carries in tow. For the townspeople, the circus brings nothing but doubt and confusion. Is its arrival, coupled with the physical decay of the town (water tower collapses, lights mysteriously extinguish), a sign of the Apocalypse? Is the Prince, a deformed yet magnetic dwarf who travels with the circus, part of the attraction or is he, as some attest, urging the people to revolt?Constructed in a bold style that adds to the overall weight of the novel (no line breaks- the book is one long paragraph with a handful of chapter breaks), "The Melancholy of Resistance" repulses on the surface but draws the reader in with its eloquent writing and slightly surrealistic tone. The characters are vibrant and alive- Valuska, the town idiot who may be the moral center of the novel; Mr. Eszter, the eccentric recluse obsessed with musical purity; and Mrs. Eszter, the power-seeking socialite who isn't above using her sexuality to achieve her goals. As these three tackle the existential meaning of the circus' arrival, events spiral out-of-control and everything they think is real is cast into doubt.Laszlo Krasznahorkai's first novel, this book will linger in the readers' conscious long after the last page is read.

This is a strange and interesting book. The writing is difficult throughout as it consists of one very long sentence followed by another and another and so on for the entire book. It creates the desired effect, I think, which is one of dreamlike intensity. About half way through there are lengthy passages of great intelligence that are beautiful to read and reread. The ending is effective and speaks its message clearly and with force. Not a book for everyone, but definitely worth reading. I liked it a lot.

My daughter, a political scientist recommended this book to me during the presidential campaign. The writing is very dense - one sentence can go on for a page or more on Kindle. The setting is bleak and the sense of foreboding is compelling. Hard to believe that it was written decades ago and yet feels so relevant. It's one of those books that is difficult to get through but will keep you thinking about it for a long time. It's not a beach read for sure, but you may feel a little better educated for reading it.

this is the third novel i’ve read in of laszlo krasznahorkai’s quartet. the novels don’t follow a singular series of events so it doesn’t matter in what order the books are read. the commonality of the novels is less of character and event than of recurring themes and patterns within hungarian places, dismal towns, aimless walking, the repetition of a name—here the name of a location, wenckheim avenue is the title character in Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming—train rides, and an old man of one of the professional or artistic classes who withdraws from life.the old man in this book, eszter, a name i found evocative of esterhazy, the composer hayden’s patron, is the former director of the town orchestra and the local school of music. gyorgy eszter refers to his isolation as self-distancing, this is how he will live his life: ‘i abjure thought, henceforth i will abjure all independent and lucid thought as if it were the crassest stupidity. i will deny the function of the mind, and, from this moment on, rely only on the inexpressible joy of my renunciation, on that only. no more showing off. i will be quiet at last, perfectly quiet’. he rarely leaves his bed, his needs are met by a factotum, valuska, hired by mrs eszter to look in on her former husband. valuska, a carefree person who delights in the heavens and his nightly walks and moments of entertainment in the local bar, kicked out of his house by his mother, is seen by most in the town as an idiot. throw in the unexpected arrival of a circus, featuring the largest whale in the world and a sinister prince and you have an odd assortment of what should be merry characters.unfortunately, krasznahorkai doesn’t write merry novels. the somber characters, the sense of dread, an unexplained night of rioting, the colonel and his tank, and the part mrs eszter plays in civic affairs. a contrast of the ineffectual women in the novel Satantango with the powerful women of Melancholy of Resistance, set up the women of MR as a force of nature, adding to the forces in the other two novels i’ve read, Satantango’s elemental water and Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming’s fire.eszter leaves his bed and the house, twice, once with valuska and again during the rioting and the interrogation of the rioters. eszter’s second circumvention, a thoughtless circuit, despite his perilous encounters with the outside world, ends with him back home, his homecoming to wenckheim avenue, to work on his composition, the werckmeister harmonies.krasznahorkai writes bleak very dark fiction with cinematic sweeps of prose translated into beautiful passages. no surprise that he’s worked with the film director, bela tarr, on several projects, one of them The Werckmeister Harmonies, based on this krasznahorkai novel, film fans of lars von trier and andrei tarkovksky should like. the development of the characters of this installment make this novel, of the three i’ve read, my favorite.